No need to be sorry for the rant. It's true; people watch those shows and think that they have a fortune. If you look for the knobs from the people on here, you'll find that they are very fair with their prices.

Problem is, I would be coupling directly into the audio output tube, Not sure it would have enough volume as most audio amps at least have a pre-amp tube?

Good point, line output level of the source player is about 1 volt, and 1 K or 10 K impedance. An low input Z like an op-amp or transistor stage is needed. The 6JD8 detector stage output level needs to be duplicated to drive the output stage.